Page 40 of Obsession

Aris says, “Because you are my friend.”

I let out a breath.

Finally, something real.

My chest lifts as if there’s been a weight on it, relief rushing through me. It feels like a dam has been cracked open, water spurting through the cracks—so furiously, with such power, that it washes away the foundations of homes, steals the breaths of children. There is horror in this, but not completely. New people will come. There will be new houses and new children.

Because you are my friend.

That was something real. Something honest. Something true.

I want to laugh—I nearly do—until I see the look on his face and realize that I reacted too soon with my relief. Rashly. I see the reality: the dam has broken and people are dead and that is the end of the story. Nothing new will come or grow on this land.

Aris’ lips are puckered like he’s had a lemon for the first time, mouth so twisted that the tip of his nose has raised.

All night he plotted ways to catch me off guard, to play with me and put me on the spot for my ill-thought revenge, and yet, he’s the one who lost this round.

The silence is so thick it could be cut.

Aris’ chest heaves up and down, though he doesn’t need to breathe, and his pupils are fat, like we’re in complete darkness. I have no idea what to do or say.

He’s caught me by the tail. He knows I’m working with Jaegen.

And I’ve got him by the ear. I know that he cares about me.

What now?

“Will I be joining them?” I ask as casually as I can, glancing at a pair of corpses by his feet.

He scoffs. “I don’t wish for your death, Mary.”

I nod. I appreciate him saying that he doesn't want to kill me. It's the little things that make a relationship.

“Then what do you want?” It’s the same thing I asked him last night.

Aris stares at me, and I stare back, and neither says anything. To speak would be to lose, like blinking during a staring contest. Even my unsteady breathing feels like a concession.

After a long moment, Aris says, “We are leaving now.”

He grabs my arm and flits us back to his own sprawling estate. But when we’re there, solid ground beneath us, he doesn’t let me go. His grip is punishing, and I don’t feel like I’ve won anything.

Before I can ask what we’re to do now, where we stand after I witnessed his massacre and he learned of my deceit, Aris abruptly releases me and storms away. I stare after him for a moment, stupefied, before getting myself together enough to walk back to my room.

Chapter ten

I don’t see Aris for two days. He’s left and hasn’t returned to the manor. I look for updates online but find nothing substantive, just more thirsty comments and threads.

Truthfully, I’ve been a mess. I have no idea what he’s doing, where he’s gone, what he’s planning. I don’t know if he’ll suddenly change his mind and kill me for my deception.

I didn’t admit to plotting with Jaegen, but Aris knows. Trying to deny it only enraged him further.

I have no idea what to do. I’d talk to Jaegen to get his thoughts on the situation, but it’s been nothing but radio silence from him, too. So I’m on my own.

I’ve hunkered down in my room and try to sleep to escape the downtime. But there are nightmares.

In one, I stood before a mountain of corpses that I knew I had to climb. Cold flesh in various states of decay squished beneath my hands as I went higher, pulling myself along by the scraps of clothes, caked in blood, ice, and snow. I must have climbed for hours in temperatures that grew more frigid and unfriendly by the minute.

Finally, I reached the top and looked down at the body at the top of the pile. Of course, it was my face looking back at me. I’m not sure what killed me exactly, but my body was properly mangled, so much so that if it had been real life, I wouldn’t have recognized myself for how beaten I was.

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